Sundoc

Dear [friends]

Now that I have actually sent the letter to the Public Defender, I would like to discuss possible consequences and next moves with you.

At first, I shrugged away [the] tale of being warned as irrelevant for my clownship. However, on fifth thoughts, we probably are safer acknowledging our vulnerability and having some sort of common protection plan, clearly articulated and agreed upon, rather than ignoring the threat, warning or whatever that was. I know this can be a brutal country and human life is, oh, so frail. This is not a cause I think I necessarily want to die for, but so far I haven’t really been choosing the path independently, I have been following signs and have the feeling I am doing only what I am supposed to do, my task. 

I believe in prevention. Never any lack of ideas with me. So please allow me to run some by you. Sorry to take up time, but I feel it is important.

• Safety in numbers? We can recruit other people to write the public defender. If a deluge of requests go in it will be harder to single out and target individuals. By the way, this would have the positive side effect of us getting to share the weighty burden of responsibility for any legal action that might ensue.
• Cry Wolf? I say if any more threats or anything of that nature come we should tell it to the gleaner, the foreign press, Mark Shields, Perkins online, whomever. All of the above and more would be best. Silent suffering will not serve the cause if we get killed. And simple and unspectacular as my life might be, I really like it. I have been latently suicidal on occasion, but this is not one of those times. Again, it would be best if not one voice, but many are raised. Outrage, plus the female plea for protection from the big bad wolves. In this case, I think we could use gender stereotypes to our advantage. We can say we need help as fragile females. Not that men are not just as vulnerable to bullets etc., but somehow they need to maintain the myth.
• Support network: before I started all this I wrote a distress call to all the friends I thought might support me. About thirty promised to help as they can. They are mainly professional people, living in every continent, socially aware and they like, love or care about me in some way. You each have your own network of friends. Perhaps you could activate them and together we will build a sort of safety net of human concern. We are likely to be stronger if we do not feel alone on this, and I know sharing what is happening with my friends helps me tremendously, even if they don’t write back.
• Channelling negative energy for positive action: the riot potential of the PTB residents is a risk, but also a resource. Can we speak gently, sensibly, encourage them to take civic action of a legal nature, instead of busting down fences and locks? For example, do a video documentation and get it aired on TV? Get them to sign petitions to the authorities, get press coverage, let them spew their emotions on record, illustrate that we are not an isolated group of hysterical academic women, but that the public interests are broader.
• Develop positive vision for parish, regional, island development: We can use the platform to propagate ideas, stimulate debate on what is appropriate development for Jamaica. We can propose that St. Ann or Northeast Region become a model eco-land. We can show not only the problems but suggest workable solutions (composting, recycling, everything you have been doing all these years anyway) pointing out that economic development is useless if we destroy the ecological basis for our own survival in the process.

I am stopping here. I present my views strongly, my nature, but all of above subject to discussion, rejection, whatever.

Til soon, one love

[now known as Auntie Brigadier General Sundoc Clown etc.]